Alumni Spotlight

Maeve Buckley - Director & Co-Owner, Line Up Sports

12 Feb

Maeve Buckley

Maeve Buckley is Director and Co-Owner of the sports marketing consultancy, Line Up Sports. She is known as one of the most influential women in Irish sport having served as a Director of the National Sports Campus Development Authority and as a Board Member of the Federation of Irish Sport. Over the course of her career Maeve has worked with clients such as Liverpool FC, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, the Ryder Cup and others. Prior to establishing Line Up in 2010 she was CEO of the sports and events agency, Platinum One. She is currently in the process of setting up a new agency, Leadingsport. Maeve talks to us about her time at UCC and how it paved the way for a career in international sport:

Course/subjects studied in UCCBA (Hons) in Italian and German

Best memory of University College CorkTom’s Room in the College Bar in-between lectures, and sitting on the wall outside the library people-watching

How has your time at UCC helped you to get to where you are now? It gave me the opportunity to speak languages and live abroad on Erasmus, which in turn set me up for working internationally, which has gradually taken me to where I am now career-wise, where I deal with international federations and clubs all the time.

What is your advice to current UCC students?Join the clubs and societies, try out all the sports, and compete in at least one intervarsity championship - you will meet and make lifelong friends through this and you will never get the opportunity again to try out so many sports for free.

What person/people at UCC had the most positive influence on you?Dr. Catherine O'Brien of the Italian Department and Dr. Joachim Beug of the German Department, both superb teachers as well as scholars

Were you involved in any Clubs or Societies?Yes, I was involved in the Italian Society and the Windsurfing Club. The windsurfing inter-varsities will live long in my memory.

Favourite UCC legend or superstitionThe fla wall in the College bar. Less a superstition as a tradition, but so much fun.